The weather these week was rather windy and rainy. We got the call from the boat captain that we could board the boat at 630am. So we headed to the marina and as soon as we reached, it started to rain! I think it rained all the way to the Indonesian immigration point at Bintan. I just slept all the way till we reached the fishing spots.
As we were on a 4D3N trip, the captain brought us further out east of Hosburgh to find fish. By the time we stopped at our first spot, it was already around 3pm. And then the heaven's opened! We changed a few spots during the heavy rain but didn't catch much fish, only a few odd fishes here and there. The rain continued till after dinner and then we stopped halfway to load up on squids for bait. We tried using our squid jigs but the big ones weren't around. So the crew started to operate the squid catcher to fill up the bait wells with squid.
Once we had enough squids, we headed off to other fishing grounds. But the weather turned bad and began to pour again. The rain lasted quite a few hours. I tried fishing but the fish weren't biting so I went to sleep.
Woke up in the morning to a nice sunrise. Rain stopped and decided to start jigging. Rigged up with a 30g Halco Twisty Chrome and began jigging. As luck would have it, the fish were around. Managed to hook up a small-ish Queenfish.
Next drop after a few jigs, I could feel a fish hitting the Twisty but no hookup. So I free-spooled and started again. Bang! Missed again. Free-spooled and this time I worked the jig in short, quick bursts and the line became tight! Fish ON! Another Queenfish hit the deck!
I'm SOLD on the Halco Twisty's!
As we continued to fish, we were getting a few fish here and there. Till Sean hooked up with something big. Pretty good fight and when it finally surfaced, it was a BIG Ebek! Topped the scales at around 8 kg.
The skies began to darken in the afternoon and the heavens opened up again! Wind was blowing pretty hard and the fishing became difficult again.
Rain stopped after about 2 hrs and we began fishing again. Boat captain said this spot is to target Ang Chor so we all put out our ranggongs baited up with squid. While waiting for the bites, the captain said can try jigging by using luminous jigs. The only one I had was a Berkley Slow jig lumo. As I was working the jig up and down the water column, I became tight with a fish. This fish was giving quite a fight on my light gear setup. Finally slowly brought the fish up and it was a Longrakered Trevally. Pretty good size too!
Just as I was changing to a Twisty jig, the clicker on the other rod began to sound slowly. Held the rod and clicked into free spool. Could feel the fish biting the squid. Anticipation is killing me...
The the line began to peel out. Counted to 5, engaged the drag and lifted the rod. Bang! Fish ON! Quickly reeled the fish in and was quite heavy; partly due to a size 16 sinker! Fish surfaced and it was a nice-sized Ang Chor. Just as the fish was being netted, another 2 rods buckled down! Fish ON!
As you can see from the picture below, the VMC Circle hook 4/0 is nicely pinned on the corner of the mouth. Best use of Circle hooks!
The next 30 mins was quite exciting as we landed a total of 9 more Ang Chor. After that, the fishing went quiet. No more bites for a few hours!
Next morning we moved to a few spots and anchored up. I switched to my Apollo rig and baited the 2 hooks with live prawn.
Dropped it down and could feel the small fish attacking the prawns. Decided to leave it a while longer. All of a sudden, I felt a very strong pull. As I wasn't using circle hooks on the Apollo rig, I quickly set the hook and it was FISH ON! Started reeling in and this fish had quite a fight in her. As it approached the surface, it stopped fighting so I thought it was a large Grouper. When it surfaced and I saw RED, I was ecstatic! It was a HUGE Coral Trout!
Awesome colors!
This is the biggest Coral Trout I've ever caught. We weighed it and it was 3kgs! So happy!
A celebratory champagne for a great catch!
After lunch, it started to rain again. Bites were slowing down and we just had a few other catches. Nothing notable.
Rained on and off the whole day through the night. I didn't catch any big ones after that.
As we were quite far out, we finished fishing around 4am for the journey back home.
Our catch wasn't that great for the trip but the Coral Trout was an exceptional catch for me.
Total catch
Gear used:
Rod - BlackMarket Slow Jig PE 3-5
Reel - Shimano Talica 8 II
Line - YGK Jigman X8
Bait - Live prawn, live squid
Rig - Apollo, ranggong
Fish ID - Coral Trout aka Ang Gao (Plectropomus leopardus)
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